99 Percent Kill by Doug Richardson Narrator: Tim DeKay
Series: Lucky Dey #2
Published by the author on March 13, 2019 (first published May 30, 2015)
Source: Author
Genres: Thriller
Length: 10 hrs 30 mins
Format: Audiobook
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When the real enemy is closer than you think....
Lucky Dey is at it again. This time, the on-again/off-again Los Angeles cop is more willful and acerbic than he's ever been before. Awaiting his official reinstatement, Lucky accepts a one-time gig to track down the missing teenage daughter of a Midwestern millionaire.
Determined to find the girl, Lucky tangles with Tinseltown’s dark underbelly to locate the millionaire's daughter. Winding his way through an L.A. landscape where the lights are bright but reality can be murky and perilous, Lucky is trapped in a trafficking web, entangled with vile human predators. But bringing the girl home safely becomes more dangerous than he expects. For the first time ever, the payoff might not be worth the price.
In 99 Percent Kill, Lucky Dey has to find the missing/runaway daughter of a Wisconsin millionaire; a tough enough job in LA, where a pretty young girl is a target for all kind of nasty stuff, made even tougher by the father who insists on riding along.
I liked Lucky a bit better this time around than I did in the first of the series, Blood Money. He’s still tough, but he’s not as mean. He’s still single-minded, but this time it comes off as a good thing, an asset. He’s also addicted to painkillers. He’s one of those characters who has a chip on his shoulder and a black cloud over his head. I think I’d like to see him working as an actual cop one of these days.
99 Percent Kill is action-packed, not surprising when the author started as a screenwriter, but it gives us moments to breathe, essential when most of what we’re reading is disturbing and violent. Lucky’s Los Angeles is an ugly place.
Gonzo, Lucky’s sidekick from before, makes a return, which made me happy. I like her and was glad to see that she was doing something she enjoyed. I’m also glad she and Lucky are not together at the moment.
The ending caught me off guard with a twist I didn’t see coming. It’s a gripping thriller and a reminder never to take anyone at face value, especially in LA.
This counts as 4 pts in the COYER Treasure Hunt (book with a number in the title).
About Doug Richardson
Though Doug attended The USC School for Cinematic Arts with ambitions to become a movie director, while there he discovered his affection for writing screenplays. After leaving USC, Doug directed a few educational films, but his sights remained set on Hollywood. After reading some of his first screenplays, Warner Brothers offered Doug a two-year contract—one of the last “paid by the week” studio writer gigs.
In 1989 20th Century Fox hired Doug to adapt Walter Wager’s novel 58 Minutes into the first sequel to the hit franchise Die Hard. In 1990, it was released as Die Hard 2, Die Harder. Doug has since written and produced feature films including the box office smash Bad Boys (1995), Money Train (1995), and Hostage (2005). In 2004 Doug produced the comedy Welcome to Mooseport. While in between movie projects, Doug managed to finish his first novel, Dark Horse.
While Doug continues to work in Hollywood developing motion pictures and TV pilots, he finds writing novels provides him the greatest satisfaction and reward. His Lucky Dey books exist between the gutter and the glitter of a morally suspect landscape he calls Luckyland—aka Los Angeles—the city of Doug’s birth and where he lives with his wife, two children, four big mutts, and the dead body he’s still semi-convinced is buried in his San Fernando Valley back yard.
Woah! Gotta love a good twist at the end
Yeah, this one definitely caught me off guard. I hadn’t liked the character and maybe should have seen it coming, but it still surprised me.